Jon Bon Jovi talks new music in 2016; Richie Sambora quitting

Jon Bon Jovi isn’t letting guitarist Richie Sambora’s absence get in the way of the Bon Jovi machine. Despite Sambora quitting the band in the midst of its Because We Can Tour in 2013, Bon Jovi confirms that the band is still moving forward with new music.

Bon Jovi was interviewed by Pierre Robert on Philadelphia’s rock station, WMMR-FM, on November 18th and discussed why the band will continue recording and touring without its longtime axeman.

“There was no way that I was gonna break up the band,” he suggests. “Why would [keyboardist David Bryan] or [drummer Tico Torres] need to suffer and why would I have to suffer? And the record company doesn’t care and the touring company doesn’t care. It’s OK. It’s not a big deal.”

He continues, “He quit and no one’s heard [from] him since. There’s no obligation. If it doesn’t move you anymore, you have the right to leave and he just happened to do it on a show day and never called us again (laughs). There was no reason. There was no fight. It certainly wasn’t about money. I’ll swear that on a stack of Bibles and he’ll confirm it.”

“He quit and no one’s heard [from] him since. There’s no obligation.”

While the singer states that he has “no ill will” towards his former right hand man, he did not see an imminent return being possible.

“I’d be hard-pressed to [allow him to return], so would Dave, so would Tico,” he claims. “It’d be a lot for us. After a year and a half and you miss 80 shows — I don’t think that’s possible.”

Bon Jovi says he’s has begun writing for the band’s next album, the follow up to 2013’s What About Now.

“I’m actively writing. I’m just starting, but I’ve got a few [songs],” he says after spending much of 2014 focusing on unsuccessfully obtaining the Buffalo Bills NFL team with several Toronto investors. “And ’15 will be about recording and [in] ’16 I’ll put something out.”

Author: Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites.